4/5/13

Today I'm thrilled to have a giveaway with Harmless Harvest Coconut Water.
One of my favorite ways to naturally hydrate is with Harmless Harvest 100% Coconut Water.
It is what coconut water should taste like; not watered down, not filled with crap or loaded up with extra sugar and in most cases extra water!
This is all natural, in it's purest raw form, and 100% safe and 100% sustainable!

I am one of those people that is just so tired of all those
energy-sugar-laden sports drinks or ‘heavily’ watered down “so-called” coconut
water drinks. These drinks do nothing
for me on a hot summer day, on a medium-heavy workout at the gym; that if
anything they make me feel unhealthier, drained, or worse ready for a nap after
a workout. I do seek out those coconut
water drinks, but am always so disappointed by how much water they contain, and
not enough electrolytes, minerals, etc.

You can imagine my surprise when I found Harmless Harvest
pure 100% coconut water. I’ll admit I
was a little setback by how small the bottle was thinking another company
selling a watered-down product in a small bottle.

But in all honesty, after one
drink I noticed a huge difference. I am
one of those people that tends to get low blood sugar and dehydration during
the summer and have to keep an eye on my potassium levels.

Watching those survivor shows on TV I would learn just
how good for you pure coconut water is, but never truly understanding the
mineral/electrolyte compound that helps to make you feel (truly feel
hydrated). Harmless Harvest coconut
water has all five electrolytes naturally: sodium, magnesium, phosphorus,
potassium and calcium.

What energy drink, sport drink, etc… out there has all of
these in a naturally occurring environment?
Exactly. None.

After your next intense workout out, gardening day, hot
summer day—or any day where you sweat a lot, and not to forget those days when
you are dehydrated, try a bottle or two of Harmless Harvest and see just how
better you feel.

And lastly, I can guarantee you that if you’ve never had
pure coconut water you will be shocked at just how good it is. There are a lot of “so called” coconut waters
out there that have fillers, flavorings, and added sugar to them so that you can
never really taste just how good coconut water is.

So what does it really taste like then?

Pure coconut water has a nice nutty undertone (in foodie
terms: an all natural almond joy taste) with gently sweet water like taste.

My favorite part of drinking harmless harvest coconut water
is there is NO after taste and no crash and burn either. If anything, this coconut water is exactly
what your body needs—daily, workout or not.

The owners of Harmless Harvest: Justin Guilbert & Douglas Riboud were kind enough to take some time and answer a few questions for me.

There is also a giveaway at the end of the interview! Read through to find out!

Thank you Justin and Doug for doing this and taking time out to help educate us a little better about your company. Tell me a little bio about your company first.

We founded Harmless Harvest in 2010 to develop beverages
that provide the raw nutritional integrity of sustainably harvested
ingredients. By combining innovative scientific techniques with local
traditional knowledge, we launched the world’s first raw and organic coconut
water ethically sourced from small agroforestry systems. Without spending any
money on marketing and relying on word-of-mouth, popularity skyrocketed and it’s
now available in retail locations nationwide.

Was this your first business venture?

We had zero experience in the
beverage industry before starting Harmless Harvest, both coming from
traditional corporate careers. Perhaps a little naively, we believed products
should taste like the original, maintaining the aroma, flavor and nutritional
integrity, and focus on social & environmental progress. So we decided to
make them.

And what made you want to do this? A raw, organic, all
natural coconut water drink?

By rejecting the disconnect between brand promise and
reality, we wanted to make a product that created the brand. Instead of people
purchasing the name on the bottle, we want people to choose our coconut water
because of the quality inside. Harmless Harvest exists due to the reputation of
100% Raw Coconut Water, not the other way around. It was important to prove
that quality can trump marketing, and people want a great product as much as we
do.

Your labeling is perfect.

You really zoned in on the key words of the importance of pure raw
coconut water: never heated, 100% harmless, raw.

Was this your intention to do it this way as a means of
educating the public?

I ask this because so many other new drink products are
geared towards “energy this” or “energy that”.

By Harmless Harvest, we’re saying that choices have an
impact, but it can be a positive impact. You don’t need to be harmful to the
source when you produce something.

The name of our product is also the only ingredient: 100%Raw Coconut Water. That’s it. We wanted it to taste like a freshly cracked
coconut and, not surprisingly, achieve that by adding absolutely nothing and
not heating it. We wanted people to understand that just from the label, no
gimmicks.

Tell us a little bit about how you get this raw coconut
water from Thailand to the USA? Is it
kept cold, how is it transported safely and in a safe manner?

After being cracked on location, our coconut water is
maintained in a deep frozen state until high pressure processing. Trust us, it
sounds a lot easier than it is!

How hard was it to start this business given that your
coconut water comes from Thailand?

Is
that right only Thailand or are you sourcing from other areas?

We spent years searching across the
world for coconuts of the highest quality, grown in traditional rural
communities. There were many false starts and mistakes before we found the
right opportunity in Thailand. Now we have strong ties to the communities we
work with there and are hoping to expand to new agroforestry locations that
grow our specific variety of coconuts.

In the beginning venture towards bringing this coconut
water to completion was there anything that threw you off, put the plans off to
the side temporarily. I know problems
happen with any new business venture, but did they have any major setbacks that
they plowed through?

Obtaining the level of quality that we wanted forced us to
create the entire system from scratch. We were utilizing technology that had
never been used with coconut water. This was in addition to setting up a system
for harvesting, bottling and transporting perishable goods where no system
existed. Finally, everyone was already familiar with coconut water lining their
pantry shelves, so educating retailers and consumers on the perishability of a
raw product and the variation that nature gives us (as seen in our pink
bottles) was imperative. Innovation requires effort, not just ideas. There was,
and still is, a lot of hard work involved in getting those coconuts from the
tree to your fridge.

Why
can’t it be neutral or even positive? The question should be really asked of
other company’s: how they can stay in business without sustainability?

And with this sustainability any farming, plants/trees can
die, be injured, or damaged.

What process do your farms use to sustain their
crops over time? In other words, how do
they plan for future crops—do they let land lie fallow, plant new trees each
year, etc…?

We work with centuries-old
operations in Thailand. These are agroforestry systems that have other crops such
as mangos, bananas, mangosteen, mingled with the coconut palms. The farmers
work with what they have and implement traditional techniques. It’s a
long-established natural method of growing and harvesting.

There is a video on your website that explains quite simply
how your coconut water is minimally processed.

It’s called the HPP process, or high pressure processing using high pressure
instead of heat to stop potentially harmful bacteria getting into the coconut
water.

You say this is the safest but most expensive process. Why is it so costly?

HPP extends the refrigerated shelf life of our coconut water
while maintaining the delicate organoleptic compounds found in a freshly
cracked coconut. It requires specialized machinery, facilities and the staff to
perform the process, but also a dedicated management.

I drink this coconut water a lot, I’ve come across a
couple of bottles that are pink coconut water?

We don’t mix or homogenize our coconut water so, just like
in whole coconuts, there can be variation among bottles. One of these
variations is the level of antioxidants. While all of our coconut water is
perfectly clear when it’s bottled, those that contain the highest levels of
antioxidants can spontaneously turn pink with time. Additives could hide the
harmless color variation, but we love that the delicious pink bottles show that
we add nothing to our coconut water. We were afraid people would run from the
pink bottles, but by telling them the truth, we now know many people who seek
them out.

Can coconut water go bad?

Like all freshly squeezed juices, coconut water will
naturally go bad shortly after the coconut is opened. With the use of HPP, Harmless
Harvest coconut water achieves a longer refrigerated shelf life. It is similar
to milk in that there is a risk of spoilage if it is not kept refrigerated or
drunk before the best by date.

Once you extract the fluids from the coconut, what do you do
with the remaining husk and meat?

Currently, most is resold locally. We are also working on
several options, ranging from new products to energy sources for our facilities
in Thailand.

Do you have any recipes using your coconut water?

I know I use mine in smoothies in lieu of milk or water, for
that extra boost of nutrition.

We have seen lots of recipes with our coconut water ranging
from simple additions of chia seeds, mint or even jalapenos in the bottle to smoothies
and sauce for mussels. We still love it straight.

Are there any other Harmless Harvest products that we can
look forward to?

Oh I hope we can see coconut bars? Almond Joy like clones that are all natural
and tastier? How about chocolate-coconut cups?
OK, you get the idea here.

But seriously do you plan on expanding your product line to
foods or more drinks?

You will be able to find Unsweetened, Honey, andPeppermint varieties in stores as of this summer. We freeze the tea leaves
right after picking, pulverize with spring water, filter and use HPP to extend
the shelf life and extract maximum flavor of the 100% Raw & Organic
ingredients.

On the coconut front, we have many innovative
products coming soon. Stay tuned!

i have tried it before and it was really good!! can't always afford to pick it up, but i always stare at it lustfully :) would totally dig some sort of dark chocolate coconut treat made from the pressed coconut!

i love this coconut water! It's gotten to the point where I refuse to drink any other type if I can't crack the thai coconuts myself. I buy it when i can, but i always long to save up enough money to buy a case! I would love to see it sold in the quart size! It would cut down on packaging :)

I love the pink ones, it's always a treasure hunt to score the pink ones. And HH coconut water is on sale at whole food market this week. I would love to see any development of the coconut related product, like dry coconut meat

I have been drinking this coconut water for some time now. I am in love and quite obsessed with it. My 2 1/2 year old daughter is also hooked. The pink bottles are the best! There are a ton of ways I could come up with to use the coconut water in recipes; simply due to my of my love for coconut. I would love to see a coconut rice pudding.

I accidentaly ran across info on Harmless Harvest searching for honey. I cant find any selling locally in my small town, so searching to purchase it online and not having any luck there. I hope to find it as I would love to taste it. It has rave reviews every where!!!

I LOVE anything coconut! My kids and I use coconut oil, coconut palm sugar, coconut milk...we've tried just about every name brand coconut water there is. Let me tell you, my first experience with Harmless Harvest was a huge wake up call!! It tasted exactly like a raw young coconut, had NO added ANYTHING and was (just as the bottle boasts) truly raw! We are die hard Harmless Harvest fans! After reading the interview I like them even more now (Ha-I didnt think that was possible!). I love their philosophy on quality over marketing and sustainability. Kudos to you, Harmless Harvest! Other companies should take a lesson!!

I love Harmless Harvest Raw Coconut Water and don't want to purchase any other brand of coconut water. I am working diligently to get it into my area. They sell it in the sounding areas, but it takes over an hour drive to get there. My fiance is excited to try their Raw Tea, too.

I fell in love with Harmless Harvest about a year ago....I haven't purchased another brand of coconut water since. I am so excited for the new teas and hope to see coconut-based food products in the future (maybe a coconut/banana or coconut/mango meal bar).

I discovered Harmless Harvest coconut water only a month ago and I'm sold on the flavor. No other brands can compare! I'd love to see larger bottles of the coconut water, a coconut chocolate bar, and coconut milk.

The first time I tried this product when I was waiting for the bus in New York and went to a nearby coffee shop that carried this brand. I'm from California but I was on a short vacation to visit my sister for the first time in Philadelphia. I thought it was truly the best coconut water I've ever had; it was like drinking juice from a young coconut. I would love to see this product be used in some sort of dessert, such as pudding or jello. Yum!

I found some the other day and had it for lunch (one of those kinds of days!) and it completely filled me up for a few hours. How,I don't know, but it did. Lucky me - healthy and filling and like you said, not watery! I would love to see it in some kind of coffee drink; kind of a healthy version of a mocha coconut frappucino!

I have tried Harmless Harvest's Coconut water and I am obsessed. I absolutely love it. I never had an interest in coconut water until I sampled their coconut water at Whole Foods. To continue this great movement, I would love to see natural coconut water in coffee products, bars, and chocolate!

LOVE Harmless Harvest. It's the only coconut water I'll drink, other than straight from a coconut. All the others make me feel icky. Not sure about other product ideas since I love it straight up! Thanks for the fun giveaway opportunity!

I also have never tried coconut water - I have to be cautious about what I take in, and haven't had the money to try something new. I'd LOVE to try it! :) Thank you so much for your generous giveaway, and the informative article.

I LOVE Harmless Harvest's Coconut water. I am a kindergarten teacher and my kids know that I need my "coco water" in the morning! I would love a coconut dessert, cookie or pudding maybe??? Great post :)

I am addicted to Harmless Harvest's coconut water! It is the only coconut water I can drink - all other coconut waters I've tried have made me gag. Usually when I purchase them at Whole Foods the cashier has to ring up one empty bottle (along with a bunch of full ones). :)

I'm pregnant and have a need to stay hydrated naturally in this heat!! I tried HH and am a huuuge fan. I would love to speak to the owners and hopefully get them to harvest them from my country in South East Asia where they are also wildly grown.please get in touch with me so we can help the Timorese farmers too!!!

Fantastic drink! I work at Whole Foods and have tried many of our coconut water drinks. I tried this one today for the first time. I looked for a pink one and WOW!!! you can taste the difference immediately. Thanks for this product - now my #1 favorite!

I really like the pink one. I have tried many coconut waters and this one beats them all in taste. I have been reluctant to pay $5 for a 16 oz bottle, but after reading up on the company I am willing to donate to their way of sustainable agribiz. I hope they can find a better alternative to Agave in their teas such as stevia and would love to see some more teas (perhaps a mix of edible flowers with jasmine tea concoction )

about vanilla sugar blog

Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com